You can’t beat a good story. Frequently the more sophisticated writers get, the more they focus on other things — characterization, atmosphere, symbolism, a unique style. That’s all very well, but sometimes you just want to know what happens next — as in Around the World in 80 Days. The narrative comes straight out of Jules Verne’s 19th-century novel. Englishman Phileas Fogg makes a bet that he can circumnavigate the world via public transportation in exactly 80 days. Playwright Mark Brown has the good sense not to get in the way of Verne’s capital plot in his stage adaptation. He makes do with only five actors. Sometimes a show filled with quick costume changes to signal new characters in a scene can smack of gimmickry. Fortunately, Around the World in 80 Days, as directed by Jerry Russell for the Fort Worth company, flows naturally and maintains the audience’s good will throughout.

‘AVENUE Q’

Extended through Oct. 28 at Theatre Three in the Quadrangle, 2800 Routh St., Dallas. $35-$40. 214-871-3300. theatre3dallas.com. For mature audiences.

Theatre Three is presenting Dallas’ first locally produced professional version of Avenue Q in its basement. On the whole, director Michael Serrecchia sticks close to the original production’s general outlines, down to specific vocal inflections, but there are enough cleverly original moments to keep things fresh. The show is that rare commodity, a musical for the just-out-of-college generation. It parodies Sesame Street with its TV segments teaching math and vocabulary lessons and its mixture of human characters and large puppets, including monsters. Don’t be misled, however: The language and sexual frankness make this adults-only fare. This intimate show works much better in Theatre Too, T3’s tiny basement space, than it did at Fort Worth’s Bass Hall and Dallas’ Winspear Opera House, where the national tours played.

‘PRESENT LAUGHTER’

LAST CHANCE Through Sept. 1 at 2800 Routh St. in the Quadrangle, Dallas. $10-$50. 214-871-3300. theatre3dallas.com

Noel Coward’s Present Laughter at Theatre Three is just the right show to prolong the afterglow of all the London glamour we were recently basking in during the Olympics. Director Bruce R. Coleman’s production emphasizes the comedy’s debts to Oscar Wilde (for its blasé and debonair attitude) as well as to French farce (for its frankly silly structural reliance on hiding people offstage in spare bedrooms and home offices). The hero, Garry Essendine, is virtually a self-portrait of Coward — a London stage star famous for doing light comedy. In Present Laughter, he’s fending off predatory women (and even one young male writer) as he prepares to depart for a theatrical tour of Africa. As Essendine, Gregory Lush can posture and emote effetely without losing a core of masculine appeal, as he interjects moments of genuine engagement with the other characters amid all the artificiality.

Sometimes you go to the theater for deep emotions, for penetrating thought, for uplift. Sometimes you just want to laugh till your sides ache. In the latter event, make haste to Circle Theatre for See How They Run. Philip King wrote the farce toward the end of World War II, so it has soldiers and a spy. It also has four men in vicars’ collars, a former actress and a saucy maidservant. What it doesn’t have is an idea in its precious little head. Not that you’ll care, thanks to the hilarious performers under Robin Armstrong’s direction.

Going to Hip Pocket Theatre is an experience unlike any other in Texas. The outdoor space is two miles off Loop 820, but it feels like you’re in remote West Texas. Artistic director Johnny Simons has been writing and/or directing most of the shows for more than 35 years. Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, adapted by Simons from Jumbo comic books created by Will Eisner and S.M. Iger, keeps to the shortness and simplicity of its graphic origins, with four complete tales in less than an hour — all played for laughs. Kristen Walker looks voluptuously regal in her leopard-skin bikini. Damek Salazar is all vacant smiles as Sheena’s ineffectual mate, Bob. Eight company actors take various roles as members of the tribes Sheena protects and liberates.